My other reflection is that closing this gap shouldn’t be beyond the wit of most SMEs because many of the tools which can help them are not as complex or expensive as they might believe. The report does a good job, I think, of both highlighting the problem as well as presenting some neat solutions. It makes a compelling case that doing nothing is not really a credible option and neatly differentiates between the kinds of traditional staff benefits which have a financial element and those which respond more to the need for flexibility and the benefits that help employees navigate the tricky boundaries between work and home or help them invest in personal development. My experience is that many leaders of SMEs ‘get’ this. They argue that agility, flexibility and being ‘fleet of foot’ are attributes which they need to hone just to respond to the sometimes fickle demands of their customers and clients. My argument is that, if they treated their employees as just another important group of customers and clients and constructed an ‘offer’ which both anticipated and responded to their needs, then much of the ‘perception gap’ would be eradicated. It’s no coincidence that many of the companies which have achieved the best rates of customer loyalty also have high levels of staff loyalty – they are strongly linked and are often driven by the same philosophy of management.
One of the other messages from the report is that SMEs are not just smaller versions of larger firms. Their character and purpose can often be different, their ability to ‘turn on a sixpence’ is more pronounced and their willingness to experiment and innovate can be higher. The report also seeks to reassure SMEs that they don’t necessarily need the resources of their larger cousins to put together a compelling and effective package of benefits which can deliver loyalty, engagement and discretionary effort from their employees. I found this to be an ultimately optimistic message at a time when it would be easy to be disheartened by the challenges the UK jobs market is posing many employers.
“It’s no coincidence that many of the companies that have achieved the best rates of customer loyalty also have high levels of staff loyalty”
Stephen Bevan, Institute for Employment Studies
Whitepaper – The Engaged Employer 04
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